


A Thousand Years in Waiting

by lachoy



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-31
Updated: 2014-10-31
Packaged: 2018-02-23 10:11:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2543768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lachoy/pseuds/lachoy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Durbe's feelings are as clear as day and it's been freaking Nasch out and just irritating Merag as she forces her brother to finally admit to how he's felt for all these centuries.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Thousand Years in Waiting

It was the elephant in the room and Nasch had no clue what to do about it. That being Durbe's embarrassingly obvious crush on him. It was severely awkward and everybody knew, but Durbe didn't seem to realize that. Between the (former) Barians, they all knew of Durbe's feelings for Nasch. It had been a thing since before Nasch's disappearance, but there had been the war to concern themselves with. Who had time for romance when their world and everything they cared about was at risk? Remembering their past lives hadn't helped any, though. It had only made the feelings grow and give more meaning to them. An explanation as to why their bond had been so unbreakable.

As someone who had been living with as a person who hadn't had friends for the majority of his life, Nasch was at a loss.

“You can't just keep playing dumb,” Merag told him as they watched Durbe work diligently on his homework. Durbe had taken a big interest in learning, mostly in history. The amount of time he took to books, trying to scour over all the years he missed, was staggering. But Nasch could remember that Durbe had always been curious, even as a knight who had dedicated his life to the battlefield. He'd always loved the library, believing his mind should be as sharp as his sword. Durbe's love of learning had always been one of Nasch's favorite things about him and he was happy to see that had never changed. 

“I'm not playing dumb,” Nasch murmured distractedly, blue eyes focused on Durbe.

“Playing dumb or not, which you are, you're not addressing Durbe's feelings or your own and you really need to.” Looking over to their best friend, she sighed. “I mean, even you remember, don't you? He's always been this loyal to you, his feelings obvious as day, and the both of you needing a rather hard push in the right direction. Which is what I'm practically being forced to do now. What has you so afraid?”

Nasch glared and crossed his arms. No matter the life and no matter the form, he didn't take being told he was afraid of anything well. “I'm not scared. I--” Glacing to Durbe to see if he was paying attention to them and seeing he wasn't, he motioned for Merag to follow him, away from Durbe so he wouldn't hear. Once he was sure they had some privacy (which was difficult enough in a small apartment with so many people living in it), he spoke. “I'm not the Nasch he remembers. I'm not the king or even the same leader. I'm like this mix and the Nasch I am now...” he trails off and shrugs, unable to come up with a proper way to explain it. It was complicated and sometimes it was difficult enough just to make it simple in his mind. “I'd just like for him to get to know me now and make sure this Nasch is still a Nasch he can be with, okay? And not stay with me because he's stuck in the past.”

People had asked him what he wanted to be called when Astral had brought them all back and he'd told them to call him whatever they wanted. He was Ryoga Kamishiro, he was Nasch, and he was still Shark as well. They were all him. His identity was still a bit confusing because it was like he had three different sets of memories (and some weren't even his own), but he thought he was getting better at it and he just wanted Durbe to know him as he was now. There was no point in being caught up in how things were in the past because they weren't the same. That was gone and while King Nasch would always be apart of him, the fact of the matter was he could never be that man again.

Merag was silent for a moment before shaking her head. “Embarrassing. My brother, Ryoga “Shark” Kamishiro, is afraid of something like this. I can't believe we have the same blood.”

“I told you I'm not--!” Before he could finish his sentence, a finger was on his lip and Merag was frowning.

“By the end of the day you are talking to him.”

“Stop telling me what to do--!”

“Was I unclear?” Red eyes showed she wasn't going to take any argument and Nasch had learned through three lifetimes not to bother. When his shoulders slumped in defeat, she smiled and put her hands on them with a pat. “There we go. It'll be good for you!”

“You just like to play matchmaker,” Nasch grumbled and moved around to peek his head in. Durbe still hadn't realized he was being watched or talked about. Merag was smiling wider as Nasch looked back at her. “You did this too. Back on the islands. Never could mind your own business.”

“And you could never do what was best for yourself so somebody had to help out. Now go on. Shoo!”

She pushed him into the living room again and with a clumsy tumble, Nasch was almost tripping over the couch. Durbe looked up, ready to stand to help.

“Are you--”

Nasch sighed and held a hand up. “I'm fine. Anyway, I wanted to talk about something. But if you have homework then don't worry.” That was something a coward would say, wasn't it? Trying to come up with an excuse to hold off a conversation. Somewhere Merag was glaring.

“No, I have the time to talk to you. You know I always do, my friend.”

Did Durbe have any idea how transparent he was? His feelings were so forthcoming, at least when it came to him and Merag. It unnerved Nasch. Not because Durbe cared for him because Nasch cared just as much. But the idea of just leaving those feelings out there, your heart so open to being crushed. Durbe was so vulnerable to Nasch and Nasch couldn't understand why.

“Just stop, Durbe,” Nasch blurted and he didn't really mean for it to come out. As much as he liked to pretend otherwise, he acted on his heart's urges and ever since their lives had calmed down,, Durbe's feelings had been on his mind quite often. But he couldn't really back away now and something deep inside was urging him. There had been a lot unsaid between him and Durbe, but especially now. Especially after everything they had gone through and seeing Durbe die. For his and Merag's sake and then knowing he would do it all over again-- “You just treat me like everything's the same. Like I'm still Nasch--”

Durbe was frowning, eyebrows furrowed as he studied Nasch as if trying to make sense of some complex problem. “You are still--”

“You know what I mean. I'm Nasch, but I'm not just him. You met me when I was this charming young king. I brought peace and stopped wars, I was outgoing, and people loved me. I loved them. I was witty and all these things I'm not now. Things I can't ever be. But now I'm not that young king. I'm this lone wolf who can barely tolerate being around people for long and I can't even begin to think of some witty line. I'm not someone who can bring together warring nations because you saw how I failed with our world. But you look at me as if it's all possible, as if I can still do all these amazing things and I can't. I can't even bring myself to go to class every damn day and here you are, still looking up to me!”

More had come out than he had bargained for and Nasch felt absolutely humiliated with himself. He wanted to just leave, not look at Durbe or Merag who had probably heard it all. Was this why he hadn't wanted to talk to Durbe? Afraid of what Durbe's feelings did to him? How they scared him because he felt he couldn't match up to the person he used to be? Why was he such a coward? Merag had been right. He was embarrassing. He always talked about standing up and doing what you had to, had gotten on Yuma's case about it before, but here he was now. Acting like a damn moron.

Nasch didn't know what reaction he expected of Durbe. At first he'd just been staring, a little surprise on his face as his glasses started to slip down. But what did surprise Nasch was when Durbe just laughed, shaking his head. Nasch wanted to demand what was so damn funny, but wasn't able to before Durbe started to speak.

“Nasch, my friend, as if I'm the same knight. Can you even see me now getting onto Mach, sword raised high, as I speak out to the crowds in some battle cry?” Durbe shook his head and his smile, amused before, now became soft. Became the smile he always, always gave to Nasch. One full of so many unsaid feelings that had existed for hundreds of years, that were so much bigger than themselves. “When we lost Merag, you changed then and it unnerved me. I never told you, I never tried to let it show, but it was scary to me. You were angry and it was like the young man I knew had died along with Merag. It felt, at times, like I was grieving two dear people. Merag died and so did the man that I had originally come to known.”

Something about this was painful to hear. Nasch had never really thought about how he had changed, but he had. His thirst for revenge had twisted him into something he hadn't been before and he really had never thought what that had done to Durbe. Now he felt bad and selfish. 

“But what I felt for you didn't change. You might have become someone different, but your heart was still the heart of the man that came to mean more to me than I thought possible. People change, Nasch. Even as our great leader of the Barian World, you were not my charming king, but you were my brave and just emperor. And now, you are my courageous friend who would do anything possible for the people he cares about. People change and I learned that with you, but what I learned is that they don't entirely and that love persists. You will always be the person I want to be by most because you are always going to be the one I will see fight harder than anything to protect those you care about. That is why I fell in love with you. These feelings worth a thousand years will never change even if you do countless times.”

Nasch was speechless. Not even blinking, his eyes stay trained on Durbe as he scrambled for something to say. But what did you say to something like that? Durbe had always been sentimental, but this was something on a whole other level and Nasch thought he was well within his right to be flabbergasted. So instead he smiled, rolling his eyes as he tried to downplay how hard his heart was beating and just how much Durbe's words had moved him.

“It hasn't even been a thousand years,” he murmured and after a second, his eyes moved to Durbe's so Durbe could see how the smile reached his eyes. “Idiot.”

Durbe stood up, laughing and grabbed Nasch's hands in his own. “I think a little exaggeration is okay, don't you, my friend?”

Fingers grasping tightly around Durbe's, all Nasch knew was that he didn't want to let go of his hands if it were possible. Looking at this him now, Nasch wondered how it was possible he had ever forgotten about him. But it just meant he had time to make up for. “Then it took you a 'thousand years' to man up and even say how you felt.”

“Hypocrite,” Durbe said, his tone light and teasing. “Excuse me if I never really had the right time to tell you. You were gone for how long?”

“Hey, that I couldn't help. You can thank that asshole for that one,” Nasch grumbled.

The laughter gone, Durbe's thumbs rubbing over Nasch's, he spoke more softly. The moment private and between them, like they couldn't easily be overheard. “And what is your excuse for not answering back my feelings just now?”

A million came to Nasch's mind and yet he knew the only thing he could say was how he did feel. He opened his mouth to try to say something because Durbe deserved to hear it, struggling. Merag had never even heard these words (unspoken, but clear as day to both) and a weak sound came out when suddenly--

“I have told you that you are not allowed on my sleeping arrangements, Vector! If I could, I would twist your head off right now!”

Mizael's shouts along with Vector's laughter came forth into the small kitchen as Merag was heard chasing after them yelling (“Can you please not destroy just one thing in your path, you--!”) as Nasch gave an identical sigh to Durbe's.

“My excuse still hasn't changed. Shit.”

Durbe gave a comforting squeeze to Nasch's hand. “We have time.” There was a crash and he winced as Mizael let out a shrieking scream coupled with another death threat. “Perhaps.”

“Nah, we do.” Nasch smiled and maybe he wouldn't be able to say those words now, but if they already had three lifetimes to get this far then Nasch was hoping they'd have a million more together.

**Author's Note:**

> Durbe's 'thousand years' comment is in regards to how he says he has "several thousand years worth of feelings" in the end of his special message in the CDC game. Even though it hasn't been that long, you fool. I also headcanon that the Barians live in some small apartment that used to be just okay for Ryoga and Rio, but not anymore. Imagine them in a cramped apartment. It's hilarious.


End file.
